Cat Power finishes new album, returns to road

Singer/songwriter Cat Power (real name: Chan Marshall) will embark on a short U.S. tour in October after completing studio work on the follow-up to her 2003 album, "You Are Free."

After kicking things off with an Oct. 12 date in Oberlin, OH, the two-week jaunt will focus mostly on the South and Midwest. Marshall will also play a Nov. 14 set in New York as part of the Wall Street Rising Concert Series, sharing the bill with Blind Boys of Alabama.

"You Are Free," released in February 2003, was the singer's sixth studio effort. Marshall recorded her upcoming LP, entitled "The Greatest," in Memphis this past spring with a group of veteran session musicians including members of the Hi Records house band and Steve Potts, onetime drummer for Booker T and the MGs.

"Playing with these guys makes it a more joyful, country kind of thing," Marshall recently told Rolling Stone Magazine. "Just to have them sitting around, telling me stories about Ike and Tina [Turner], was really amazing."

"The Greatest" is due in stores in January 2006.